Land vehicles are tested for crashworthiness by a variety of tests including frontal impacts, side impacts, rear impacts, roll-over and other tests. Full frontal impact tests were previously developed that specified that a vehicle impacts a barrier between the frame rails that extend longitudinally relative to the vehicle. In a full frontal impact test, the frame rails provided the primary support for the vehicle body.
A test promulgated by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) simulates small overlap frontal crashes against a rigid barrier. In the proposed test, the vehicle impacts a rigid barrier having a six inch pole-like radius on one corner with a 25% overlap at 40 MPH. The impact is outboard of the frame rails and the frame rails do not provide as much resistance to intrusion into the passenger compartment as in the case of impacts between the frame rails. The extent of any intrusions into the passenger compartment are measured at the lower hinge pillar, rocker panel, footrest, left toe pan, brake pedal, parking brake pedal, steering column, upper hinge pillar, upper dash, and left instrument panel.
Deflectors that are attached to the outer end of a vehicle bumper have been tested and have reduced intrusions into the passenger compartment. One problem with adding deflectors to a vehicle is that the deflectors may interfere with the performance of impact absorption systems such as crush-cans that are used to minimize the effects of a full-frontal impact. In the case of impacts in between the frame rails, crush-cans and/or frame rails are designed to deform in an accordion fashion to maximize impact energy absorption. Deflectors addressing small overlap impacts can disturb the accordion deformation of crush-can/frame rail. Modifications of vehicle design to address small overlap impacts should minimize any effect on other impact modes.
Actively deployed deflectors have been proposed that include an inflation system that may be similar to an airbag inflator that inflates a collision impact absorption mechanism. Pyrotechnic actuators for an expandable sliding deflector are disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,926,322 and EP 2 543 572 A1. Pivoting links with a telescopic link have also been proposed as in U.S. Pat. No. 7,819,218. Many other approaches have been proposed to address the problem of small overlap rigid barrier front end collisions.
Additional reduction of intrusions in the small overlap rigid barrier (SORB) test results are desired that further reduce intrusions and that are simple, robust and cost effective.
This disclosure is directed to solving the above problems and other problems as summarized below.